This invention is directed to herbal compositions for treating cancer as a disease with an inflammatory component and to methods employing these compositions.
General Background and State of the Art: It is a widely accepted view that cancer can start in just one of the body's billions of cells. Cancer could be triggered by a variety of factors. Our current thinking is that radiation, toxic chemicals, viruses or other infectious agents may induce an error in the transcription of the cell's genetic information. The cells then divide to form abnormal cells, without normal genetic controls. The immune system of the body then fails to respond properly by not destroying the aberrant cells. The aberrant (cancerous) cells lose their normal controls of cell division and continue to proliferate. This leads to the formation of a growing mass or tumor expanding into healthy tissues. The cancerous cells compete with normal cells for nutrition. Also, the cancerous cells may migrate into the bloodstream or the lymphatic system that is the primary cause of the formation of a metastasis.
It is currently believed that cancer could be reversed if the altered genetic message of the cell could be corrected. However, such a method up to this date has not been developed. Our current mainstream treatment methods focus exclusively on the tumor and equate cancer with the cancerous lesion(s) appearing in these patients. This way cancer is considered a localized phenomenon that may lead to an incomplete definition of this disease.
The mainstream treatment modalities for cancer are sometimes described as the cut, burn and poison therapies. As the cancerous lesion is equated with cancer, its surgical removal, whenever is possible, is considered indispensable. This is done despite the evidence that surgery fails to correct the underlying cause of cancer and may actually cause the spreading of cancer. Residual lesions are treated with radiation and chemotherapy, both of which produce severe side effects. These treatments are immunosuppressive and can pave the way to secondary infections, an important cause of mortality following chemotherapy.
Toxicity to the kidneys, bone marrow and the nervous system may produce lasting complications even if a remission is achieved. It is also established that such therapies can actually cause secondary tumors. Regardless of the practice of these cancer treatments, two-thirds of all cancer patients eventually die of the disease. Moreover, many of the malignant tumors are resistant to these conventional treatments.
A safe and effective cancer treatment has been the goal of scientists for many decades. Such a technique must be selective in destroying the cancer cells without irreversibly damaging normal cells. It is well established that cancer is continually produced in the human body but is kept in check by the immune system. Only when the immune system is weakened can cancer establish itself. Therefore, it would be desirable to develop methods that restore the healing ability of the body so cancer would be eliminated naturally by the immune system.